Spartanburg County to continue enrollment in state health plan

Monday

Oct 21, 2013 at 11:54 PM

Some Spartanburg County employees will see a little more money in their paychecks and others will see a little less following County Council's Monday night decision to continue enrollment in the state health insurance plan.

By FELICIA KITZMILLERfelicia.kitzmiller@shj.com

Some Spartanburg County employees will see a little more money in their paychecks and others will see a little less following County Council's Monday night decision to continue enrollment in the state health insurance plan.

After months of debate, council acted on County Administrator Katherine O'Neill's recommendation and reaffirmed its decision to join the state plan in hopes of avoiding radical rate hikes and providing relative stability to county employees.Under the standard health insurance plan, the one that is closest to the county's current package, employees will see a monthly increase of $43; for employee and spouse there will be a $60 increase. Employees insuring themselves and their children will save about $50 per month and those insuring their families will save about $80. O'Neill said her recommendation was based on a desire to minimize employees' potential exposure to repeated dramatic rate changes and give them as many options as possible to deal with the rising costs of health insurance and stagnant wages. While there will be a budget shortfall this year, the state plan is expected to save the county more than $4 million next year. That would allow the county to prepare for a potential rate hike when claims are reassessed in 2016, O'Neill said.During consultation with other elected officials, O'Neill said she found most wished they could keep the plan they were on without cost increases, but that would leave a $4 million hole in the county budget. Councilman David Britt compared the county's health insurance situation to trying to buy a BMW on a Chevy budget. Moving to the state plan was supported by a majority of countywide elected officials, O'Neill told council.Council members Jane Hall and Michael Brown voted against joining the state plan. Brown said in his conversations with constituents, several veteran county employees have told him they are considering leaving the county in hopes of finding a better benefit arrangement. While the state plan will save some employees money, the benefits are not as complete and could potentially incur substantial costs beyond premiums."We need to at least move forward and protect our employees," Brown said. "I think we need to look where we're at and try to restructure our plan to try to control our destiny."Managing the health insurance costs would have been much easier if his motion of an inflation plus growth tax increase had been considered, Brown said.Chairman Jeff Horton remained skeptical of the state plan, but voted in favor of moving forward with it based largely on O'Neill's recommendation and the will of other countywide officers. Horton said he likes the control of the self-funded plan and fears that the county will become locked into the state plan indefinitely, but acknowledged the state-funded plan offers some cover from the dramatic changes and the fiscal responsibility that the self-funded plan would have mandated."I think Katherine laid out a plan that might be the smoothest avenue in the near term," he said.Pat Gotautas, a 15-year veteran of the Clerk of Court's Office, adamantly urged council to consider doing something to help employees who are struggling with the cost of health insurance, stagnant wages and mounting bills."I'm speaking for every employee who is here and every employee who is not here; please, please, do something to help us out," she said. "We have people working two or three jobs and I'm still proud to call myself part of Spartanburg County government."O'Neill also stressed to council she would like to turn as much attention as possible to employee salaries. If the local government fund — state's payments to local governments — is fully funded for the first time in years, O'Neill said raises are possible.Now the race is on to enroll employees as fast as possible. Typically enrollment is a three-month process, and the new plan would become effective Feb. 1.But if state officials receive help with enrollment from county staff, it might be possible to complete enrollment by Jan. 1. If the effective date can be moved up by one month, it will save the county about $600,000, reducing the health insurance budget gap from $1.1 million to a little more than $500,000.

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